Alphabet

Alfıbet

Because the English language is an international language, it is very hard to create one written language that reflects every single accent, while also being easy to read and usable in daily life.

The spelling of this alphabet is based on common pronunciations of each word, not on exact phonetic equivalents for every sound. Because of this, in some accents, the spelling may seem incorrect.

However, building an alphabet in this way creates a “Standard English” or “Standırd İŋglish”. Within this one way of writing, there may be a few exceptions, where some words are spelled differently in some accents. But overall, the spelling stays the same, is understandable to everyone, yet is easy for anyone to learn.

If an English learner just follows the pronunciation of Expressive English Alphabet (EEA), they will speak our language well.

Please find the EEA below, along with a basic pronunciation guide with corresponding phonetic equivalents in IPA:

Below is the more detailed alphabet list with explanations and examples to give more clarity into how and why each letter has been chosen to represent each of the sounds of English:

Single Letters of the Expressive English Alphabet:

Ai ai – eɪ – aibıl (able)

Ay ay – eɪ (ending sound/before vowel) – day

A a – æ – apıl (apple)

Ò ò – ɑ / ɒ – hòt

À à – ɑː / ɑ (American/Canadian accents write À, but pronounce as Ò /ɑ/) – fàthır (father)

Àr àr – ɑː / ɑːr / ɑr – àrctic (arctic)

Àl àl – ɑː(l) / ɑ(l) – pàlm (just in the specific cases with this ‘al’, like in ‘palm’ or ‘calm’, we still write the ‘l’, even if we don’t pronounce it)

O o – oʊ / əʊ – go

O’r o’r – oʊr / əʊr – o’riyın (Orion/O’Ryan)

Or or – ɔːr – dor (door)

Au au – ɔː / ɔ – taut (taught)

Aw aw – ɔː / ɔ (ending sound/before vowel) – law

Oi oi – ɔɪ – point

Oy oy – ɔɪ (ending sound/before vowel) – toy

Ou ou – aʊ – sound

Ow ow – aʊ (ending sound/before vowel) – how

B b – b

C c – k / x 

Cs cs – ks – ecscyus (excuse)

Ch ch – tʃ

D d – d (sometimes sounds like a j – duriŋ)

Dr dr – dʒr / dr – driyv (drive)

E e – ɛ – red

Er er – ɛər – her (hair)

Ea ea – iː (beginning sound) – eavın (even)

İe ie – iː – maybie (maybe)

İe ie / Ea ea – ɪə (add r/l to the end) – diel (deal) / eal (eel)

F f – f 

G g – g

Gz gz – gz – egzactlie (exactly)

H h – h

I ı – ə – ıround (around)

A a – ə (by itself/ending sound) – a / alfa

E e – ə (just in ‘the’)

İ i – ɪ – pin

Í í – ɜː – bírd (bird)

İy iy – aɪ – hiy (high/hi)

J j – dʒ

L l – l

M m – m

N n – n

И ŋ – ŋ – wiŋc (wink)

P p – p

R r – r

S s – s

Sh sh – ʃ 

St st – st / stʃ – most / stupid

Str str – str / stʃr – striet (street)

Tt – t / ʔ – matır (matter)

Tr tr – tʃr / tr – train

Tu tu – tʃuː / tuː – Tuzday (Tuesday)

Th th – ð – the

Ţ ţ – no individual pronunciation (just added at this stage to Ţh, to show the difference between this combination and Th)

Ţh ţh – θ – ţhiŋc (think)

U u – uː / ʊə – hu (who) / cul (cool) / Yurıp (Europe) (If you pronounce these ‘U’s differently to each other, don’t worry – just write them all with ‘U’ and it’ll be fine)

Ù ù – ʌ – ùp (up)

Ú ú – ʊ – púl (pull)

V v – v 

W w – w / ʍ

Y y – j – yes

Z z – z

Zh zh – ʒ – vizhın (vision)

Grammatical Differences in the Expressive English Alphabet:

Possessives:

In this alphabet, we use quotation marks (“) to signify possession. For example, in traditional English spelling, an apostraphe and S is added at the end of a word to indicate possesion, like: Paul‘s or Mary‘s.

In EEA, quotation marks are used here instead, like: Paul”z or Merie”z.

Quotation marks are also used at the end of a word to signify possession. For example:

James’ = Jaimz”

Doctors’ = Dòctırz”

Possessive pronouns do not follow this rule, however, just to keep writing simple and free from tons of random punctuation. For example:

Miyn (mine)

Hiz (his)

Hírz (hers)

İts (its)

Yorz (yours)

Ourz (ours)

Therz (theirs).

Shortened/combined words:

In this alphabet, we use apostraphes (‘) to show two words have been shortened and combined. For example:

İzın’t (isn’t)

Hazın’t (hasn’t)

Shúdın’t (shouldn’t)

Ther’z (there’s (there is))

İy’l (I’ll)

Wer’z (where’s)

Capital Letters:

In EEA, capital letter rules are the same as traditional English.

So, capitalize every starting letter of each sentence and every starting letter of a proper noun, like a name of a person or place.

The ‘İy’ (I) isn’t capitalised, unless it begins a sentence. So:

I want… = İy wònt…

When I… = Wen iy…

Compound Words:

In EEA, just like in traditional English, compound words can be joined by a hyphen. This means words like ‘time-keeper’ and ‘king-maker’, would be written as:

time-keeper = tiym-ciepır

king-maker = ciŋ-maicır

Adding on Suffixes:

In EEA, the ending sounds of words can be spelled differently to the same sounds at the beginning or in the middle of a word. An example of this is the ‘ay’ – it can change to ‘ai’. Despite this, we keep the original spelling of a word, even when we add more letters onto the end. For example, we write like this in EEA:

Play -> Playd -> Playz -> Playiŋ

Not:

Play -> Plaid -> Plaiz -> Plaiiŋ

If you want to have a look at what this alphabet looks like in context, please go to our Read page.